ACT 9489-2 | Vijay Iyer (p), Stephan Crump (b) and Marcus Gilmore (d). Rec. 2009

Perhaps more than any other format in jazz the piano trio offers the greatest interactivity for rhythm, melody and harmony and some of its iconic exponents, from Garner and Powell to Monk and Jarrett, have shown that magic can arise from moments when all three of the instruments appear to be one sound split into three, or possibly six or more constituent parts. In its moments of inspiration, of which there are several, Iyer’s group presents a wide range of interrelated, meshed sounds that almost create the illusion of a larger ensemble without the attendant constraints. Hence Gilmore’s alternation of high and low snare sounds, the crisp, serrated reggae sensibility of his rimshots and the staggered house hypnosis of his bass drum really creates percussion that reinforces the shudder of Iyer’s left hand and the shuffle of his right. Crump is melodic Dr Jekyll to his own rhythmic Mr Hyde and his shifting of roles is largely symbolic of the sense of creative collision within and between his colleagues.

The bulk of the material is covers, something that throws the individuality of the group into sharp relief for whether it is the slip slide rumba of Andrew Hill’s ‘Smoke Stack’ or the hard funkrock pulsation of MIA’s ‘Galang’ there is a particular resonance in the music, something that can be attributed to the strength of character of each player and the cohesion between them. One could point to Iyer’s trembling, almost liquid arpeggios, the imperceptible move from staccato to allegro phrases and other subtle alterations in tempo that are like an organic pitch shifting on the turnables but the triumph here is that these trademarks are far from clichés. Iyer’s signature may be enriched by more invention over time. Kevin Le Gendre